TIREY. AGRICULTURE. 43 



roads, and the transport of peat from the hills and of kelp 

 from the shores, must still, as they have always done, 

 produce a necessity for a greater number of horses than 

 would be required if carts could be used. Their inefficacy 

 for labour arising from their bad condition, and from their 

 want of stature and strength, also add to this necessary 

 number a proportion which would be materially reduced 

 if a better fed and stronger race was adopted. The 

 division of the land into small farms leads here also, as 

 it has every where done, to an unnecessary multiplication 

 of them ; the number required on a small tenement being 

 equally capable of doing the work of a larger one. In 

 a greater degree this excess has resulted from the pos- 

 session of common farms, every joint tenant, from pride 

 or rivalship, thinking it necessary to keep as many horses 

 as possible, whether he has work for them or not. It 

 has arisen in some measure also from the undefined value 

 of land when thus held in common ; it seeming seldom to 

 enter into the conception of the small tenant that a 

 given portion of land could feed but a given number of 

 animals, whether held in common or not, and that the 

 diminution of the stock of his useless animals would 

 enable him to increase that of his useful ones. The 

 crofting system, where every man's lot is visible to him- 

 self, has tended to facilitate his conception of the value 

 of land, and to make him economize that of which he 

 can now see the extent and powers ; and it has thus aided 

 to diminish, in a great measure, this preposterous 

 evil*. The breed of horses in question, however de- 

 ficient in strength and weight for agriculture, is well 

 known for many useful qualities, and for its adaptation 

 to the climate : those of Tirey were noted for their beauty 

 as well as their small size, but they have been exter- 



* The tax on horses kept for pleasure has been sometimes resorted to 

 as an expedient for this purpose ; and the mention of such an expedient 

 raa y> perhaps, amuse the politician of the south, who is unacquainted 

 with the internal policy of the Highlands, if policy it can be called. 



